It is unfair to draw comparisons between two players of different eras, but fans often like to rake up a debate. The great Sachin Tendulkar has always been that cricketer, probably, with most number of comparisons with other players – be it Tendulkar vs Lara, Tendulkar vs Bradman and recent being his comparison with Virat Kohli.
Tendulkar’s stats are unmatched being the highest run-scorer in international cricket with 100 hundreds. After Tendulkar retired, Kohli was the next big thing in Indian cricket by scoring heavily across formats.
After his debut in 2008, Kohli played with Tendulkar until the latter retired in 2013. Kohli still continues to play in the ODI format after having quit from Tests and T20Is. When confronted with the same Tendulkar vs Kohli comparision, former India captain Sourav Ganguly ended the debate by saying both the players were match-winners for India.
“Both are great, both are very good, and I am happiest that both are from India. Both have won so many matches for India. You cannot even imagine, because when you play, you realise how difficult it is to score so many runs and so many centuries,” he said while speaking at the WITT Summit on the TV9 Network
Ganguly and Tendulkar opened for India in many ODIs and shared numerous memorable partnerships. But Ganguly revealed that he was always under pressure batting alongside Tendulkar.
The former BCCI president said: “Sachin Tendulkar is a very big player. I have seen him from up close, I have played so much with him. I had opened around 250 ODIs with him, so I would always come home and say that my game should not go down.
“Sometimes my wife would ask why, since form goes up and down. I would say no – people will say that at one end there is such a great player, and at the other end there is an average player. So I never wanted my game to go down.
“One thing I believe in life is that when you play with good people, players who are better and stronger than you, your game also improves, your level rises to theirs. So in my opinion, there should not be a comparison between Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar. Both belong to India. But I have seen Sachin very closely, and he is a great player.”
